"European people" is an umbrella term for people who belong to any ethnic, racial, or national group with origins in Europe. Today, it primarily refers to people who are from Europe and reside in the continent, as well as the European diaspora. By extension, however, the term "European" may be applied to identify people in the context of demographics in certain countries outside of Europe—namely in the Americas and in Oceania—where people of European ancestry constitute the majority of the population while being part of a non-European national group. Additionally, any person who holds European Union citizenship may be identified as European in that particular context.
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As of 2025 [update] , Europe's total population is estimated to be 744 million people. [1] Per a 2015 estimate, over 480 million people in countries outside of Europe have at least some European ancestry. [2] Most indigenous Europeans are racially classified as White, which is also the most common term applied to people of European descent in non-European countries. Between the 18th and 20th centuries, a now-disproven race concept classified European people as part of the so-called Caucasian race, which broadly grouped together the populations of Europe, West Asia and North Africa, Central Asia, and South Asia. Although it is generally avoided in modern academic discourse, "Caucasian" is still used in official data for United States censuses to racially classify people whose ancestry or ethnicity is European, Middle Eastern, or North African.